


What is Hope?

by migucci



Series: Yakuza AU [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Add tags along the way, Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blackmail, Established Relationship, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Family Secrets, Fluff and Angst, Learning to trust, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Multi, Sibling Bonding, Threats of Violence, its not as violent as it sounds actually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-10-18 00:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17570522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/migucci/pseuds/migucci
Summary: Shouyo and Natsu had only had each other to rely on since forever and learnt to fend for themselves. Natsu had just started her first year of middle school and Shouyo, supposedly in his final year of high school never attended high school to earn for the both of them.Also known as the Tokyo's Watchdog, lost in darkness and the evil schemes of the world - until a ray of hope shines in on their lives, Kuroo Tetsurou





	1. Untamed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally worked up the courage to post the first chapter out of what i plan to be a 20 chapter fic hopefully.  
> Matsukawa Oyabun and his right hand Hanamaki is honestly the best thing I've ever thought of
> 
> Disclaimer; there's minor violence and minor character death in this chapter

It was a night in late spring. the sound of pouring rain and thunder roared through the bustling city. The streets were almost empty but the stores were lit and music blaring over the sound of rain. Some shops were flourishing from people seeking shelter from the rain while others were dead. A normal night on the streets of Tokyo.  
Somewhere on the streets were two small figures pressed against each other trying to keep themselves warm, there was not much for shelter to keep them out of the cold rain in the back alleys, cries muffled by the rain. A figure of a young boy stroking the back of a younger girl.

"Natsu, it's okay. Don't cry, I'm here. I'm here. He can't hurt us anymore."

The rain continued to pour for a long time and the streets became less crowded as time passed. The both of them were hanging on each other as if their life depended on it, never letting go. They didn't know what time it was, only that is was late.As the rain grew softer, the little girl had calmed down and eventually dozed off. The two were approached by two men in black suit. The boy, as if practiced, immediately put his hand forward to protect his sister.

"Hinata Shouyo, Hinata Natsu. Come with us."

The siblings exchanged confused looks and were cautious. At fifteen, he was more street smart than book smart and these people screamed bad news.  
One of them crouched down "Well, are you going to stay in the rain all night long? She's gonna freeze."

Shouyo stared at the man, unsure if they could be trusted but leaving Natsu in the rain was a far worse option; he couldn't afford her getting sick. Especially when they wouldn't know when their next meal was going to be and come from. They were alone and helpless.

"Where?"

"You'll know if you follow us." the man smiled, it wasn’t a scheming smile, but it was a fake one nonetheless.

He stood up again and motioned for the two children to follow him, and so he did. He took Natsu by the hand and walked hand in hand. Shouyo was skeptical, who wouldn't be in that situation? His brain was screaming at him to not follow the two men. When the wind blew he swore he could've seen something like a holstered gun belt on the man. They looked dangerous - no, they were dangerous but another part of him was saying it was the best way of survival and he'd go to great lengths to make sure his sister was safe.

They followed the two men into a black tinted SUV. The men didn't seem to mind that the two of them were soaked through their clothes, they were even given towels in the car. They drove in silence and Natsu fell asleep on his lap in the comfort of the car. The back heater was turned on for them and the comfortable leather seat was lulling him to sleep.

By the time he realised, the car had stopped in front of an small, two-story apartment complex and the man shook him to wake him up. "We're here."

It took him a few moments to adjust to the unfamiliar surrounding, and the fact that he was in a stranger's car. The events that happened rushed back to him and he was on alert again. He couldn't believe that he could fall asleep in such a situation, it was too risky but the ride was just too comfortable especially after finally getting out of that horrible rain.

He guiltily woke Natsu up and guided her out of the car, half asleep and her messy hair was even messier on the side she was sleeping on. Her steps were dragging as they were led into one of the apartments. The lights were finally bright enough so Shouyo could see their facial features.

The first man who approached them had messy black hair and seemed like he was endlessly pouting and the other man who had been doing all the talking had his hair dyed a weird pink shade that somehow he managed to pull off.

They unlocked the front door that had the number 203 and motioned for the children to walk in first. Cautiously, he walked into the apartment. It was a small unit with a fully functional kitchen, a bathroom, the tatami mat living and a single room.  
"Like it?"

"What? You mean we're going to live here? I mean we don't even have money."

"The house is paid for, there's money in the safe for whatever reasons." The other man finally spoke for the first time. "Makki."

The pink haired man took a cellphone from out of his pocket and handed it to Shouyo. "All you have to do is pick up when we call and not refuse." He gave a polite smile but there was that sense of danger coming from it and Shouyo knew he never wanted to test them, so he gratefully took the phone.

The men left as soon as they appeared and left Shouyo and Natsu to their own expenses. After getting a hold of the entire situation, he carried half asleep Natsu into the shower to wash off and get all the dirt and mud off of them. He didn't think he'd have a hot shower so soon after leaving that shitty household and was grateful for whoever those people were.

\--- 3 Years Later ---

"Natsu I'm going to leave you behind if you don't hurry up."

"Wait Oni-chan, I'm almost done!" He could hear her footsteps running around the house looking for something. "Found it!"

"Geez what were you even looking for? You're going to be late for your first day."

"I won't be. Anyways, does the uniform suit me?" She did a twirl, showing off her grey pleated skirt and holding onto the hem of her sailor uniform trying to pose for him.

"You look like any other middle schoolers out there."

"I'm sorry, it was a mistake to ask you," she sighed. "You don't have to send me off to school you know."

"It's not everyday my little sister gets in middle school. At least let me send you off to the welcoming ceremony."

Natsu locked the door behind them and the both of them left the rundown building, school bag over her shoulders and Shouyo was wearing skinny jeans, an off white shirt and a bomber jacket to finish off his look. He'd usually wear sweatpants and a hoodie over his shirt but he had to at least look decent for today, for Natsu.

"Ni-chan, don't you think you should at least go to high school?"

"Again with this? I'd be in my third year this year, it's totally impossible for me now." He waved the topic off. "Plus who's going to earn all the money. Don't worry about me," he patted her hair.  
Nekoma Middle School was a four station train ride from home and another 5 minutes walk from the station. It would be a problem if she ever overslept but Natsu was an early riser, more so than her brother who sleeps in till noon until she throws something at him to wake him up.

The closer they got to the school, more students started falling in, some first years with their parents, taking pictures by the entrance ceremony signboard by the gate. Fortunately for them, Shouyo had brought along a selfie stick much to her horror.

It saves them from asking a stranger from taking it, he'd told her and she wasn’t a huge fan of holding her phone out to take her own pictures.

They entered the school compound and Shouyo was taking pictures of Natsu like an overbearing parent, sometimes the both of them but mostly of her, telling her to pose more or to stop being shy and smile like she usually does. This continued until the crowd eventually thinned and there was only five minutes until the bell and Natsu had to physically push him away, telling him to go back home.

She waved him goodbye and ran inside the building, following the crowd of all the new students.

After leaving the school premises, his phone rang. Hearing that familiar ringtone that was set only from that person, his cheery attitude turned sour as he stared at the private number.

"Hello."

"We have a job for you."

\---

It was a busy day for the Tokyo Police Department. Calls on cats stuck in a drain, suspicious persons and thefts were the usual day for them. In a big city like Tokyo, there was never a day that they had nothing to do. Sergeant Kuroo was their best detective in the field, sharp and quick at solving doing his job.

He was on the police line, hands holding onto the receiver and diligently taking down notes from the other line. He said a few words and thanked the person on the line before setting the phone down.

"Yaku, we've got a tip. Let's go."

 

——

The address that was mailed to Shouyo's phone led him to a secluded industrial area with warehouses. If this was a proper and non-underworld business, he'd think he was in the wrong place. Warehouse 51, he was supposed to meet up with an acquaintance. It looked deserted, a perfect place for a drug deal. If he wasn't looking properly he probably wouldn't have noticed the lights inside were switched on.

He walked up to the huge metal door and was about to open it when a voice called out to him. "Hey kid, you lost or something? Where's your mum?" He let out somewhat a laugh when he had a closer look at Shouyo.

"If you don't wanna get hurt, you better run off home boy," flicking his pocket knife at him hoping to spook the tiny boy.  
However, he didn't even flinch one bit at the sight of a knife in his face, he'd seen more intimidating people in his experience. This guy had his hair dyed blonde and had a crop cut, he had multiple earring on both ears and a fairly visible tongue ring as well. It was painful for him to see the guy try so hard to look intimidating.

"Look, I'm here for business so let me through." He was tired to people treating him like a child in this side of work. It wasn't his fault that he stopped growing years back and was smaller than average.

"Hah! Sorry kid, but your lies are useless. Boss told me for there to be no distractions."

Shouyo audibly sighed and that seemed to piss the older man further. "You'll be sorry for this kid!" he shouted as he charged at Shouyo. Simple-minded. He could easily take this guy on and pin him down to the ground, take his opponent's knife and use it to incapacitate him. A piece of cake.

"I was wondering what the commotion was about. Shou-chan, you're here!" The warehouse door opened stopping the both of them in their tracks. A man in a black suit stepped outside to greet him, he had perfectly groomed brown hair.

"Did the guards stop you again?" he laughed and rested his arms on his shoulders. "Still tiny aren't you."

"Hey, Grand King, why didn't you tell them I was coming?"

"Huh? Well, I wanted to see how a person would stand up to Tokyo's Watchdog. Last time that happened, the poor guard ended up with a broken arm it was hilarious!"

The guard stared at the both of them in awe that the kid was acting so casual with one of the syndicate's leader or confusion of how the situation ended up the way it did. He couldn't quite put a pin on it. "Umm, Oikawa-sama.. by Tokyo's Watchdog, do you mean.. the man who single handedly brought down the remaining rebels, is this kid? The man who was personally trained by oyabun himself?" he pointed towards the gingered haired boy.

"Forgive me. I didn't know." the guard apologised, bowing his head.

"It's fine, I don't really care. I just want to get this over with." Shouyo said, walking into the warehouse, wasting no time.

"Serious as always." Oikawa commented and followed behind Shouyo indoors, not spending much time outside where they could be exposed to enemy attacks. Inside, there were container boxes stacked ontop of each other in rows and he scanned the room, making sure of every exit and escape route. Somewhere along the way, Oikawa started walking in front of him, leading the way.  
He walked into the room at the back of the warehouse. The moment Oikawa opened the door and motioned him to get in first, his stomach dropped.

"Still as cautious as ever."

He was greeted by a few more familiar faces. Just seeing their faces made him feel sick, they're the worst of the worst group of people. Sitting in the chairs in front of him, arranged in a semicircular manner so everyone was visible, were the masterminds behind all the sinister crimes in Tokyo; the goddamn yakuza.

"Hey Shouyo."

Even he couldn't stand up to this much pressure. He was surrounded by people who are basically rulers of the underworld society. Kings of their own relative crime fields with a few hundred foot soldiers each to do their dirty work for them. One wrong move and an order from any one of them could cost him his life.

"What is this, a meeting? Shouldn't you do that in your luxurious hotels or brothels you own instead of a rundown warehouse?"

"Usually I would but you see, we have a traitor on our side lately. The cops have been on to us more than usual lately. Strange don't you think?" The black haired man stood up from his seat and walked towards him. He was frozen in his spot, every part of him was telling him to run, but he wouldn't last ten steps before he would've been shot, so he decided against it. He racked his brain for anything he could've messed up recently but nothing came to mind.

"And you're suspecting me?" he worked up every courage in him to ask.

The man laughed "Yeah right, you don't even have it in you to betray me."

He now knew why he was called here, it was to painfully remind him of his place in their world and he had absolutely no power to go against them. This man owed the yakuza his and Natsu's life ever since that rainy night and has been their disposable pawn. His fist clenched and he sucked his teeth to suppress the anger boiling inside him, angry at himself for not being able to do anything about it.

"So, what are your orders?"

The man seemed satisfied at that response. He took out a picture from his pocket and handed it to the smaller boy. "I had Makki check what happened to our finances and turns out that fucker had been stealing from us and on top of that, he had the balls to steal documents from my office. Can you believe it?"

His expression went dead serious and it didn't just send shivers down his spine, the blood lust he felt made Shouyo want to run as far away as possible, away from him forever. "That's where you come in. He's got skilled bodyguards on the lookout for us so we can't get close to him. I want it back. Got it?"

"I don't kill."

"And that's why I've kindly devised a plan for you." he motioned for Shouyo to come closer to the table.  
His target was Ukai Keishin, thirty-two. A blonde man with piercings, if someone were to describe him. He was meticulous and had regular schedules and was supposed to be at the bank on Tuesdays. There was a plan for him to take part in a cover up bank robbery while he had to retrieve some documents back. It was simple, but to work in a public facility with high level secuirity wasn’t going to be easy, Mattsun knew that.

"It's about time. If we do have a traitor on our side, the cops will be here anytime soon. There's another exit at the back."

Shouyo listened to his directions and left without waiting for anymore. He was the only one without a gun after all. Before he left, "I'm counting on you Shouyo."

If it was coming from someone else, he would think of it as encouragement but Shouyo knew better than anyone it was a threat. If he messes this up then he and his sister would be their next target.

As predicted when he left the warehouse premises, he saw a few police cars that weren't there earlier. He put his hood up to cover his face and walked the other way. "Tokyo Police, stop right there and put your hands in the air," a voice boomed.

Talk about a smooth escape. Shouyo did as he was told and turned to face the officer as not to raise suspicion against him. He had a gun pointed at him and he decided to play an innocent school boy role. "Woah, what's with the gun? I haven't done anything."

"Yeah? I'll be the judge of that." He fluidly cuffed both Shouyo's hands behind him to avoid any possible struggle. He did a quick body check and when that was done, he took down his hood and was taken aback.

"Yo- you're just a kid."

"Yeah, what did you think I was."

"Kuroo what's wrong?" Another voice belonging from a shorter police officer approached them.

"Well..." he didn't wait for Kuroo to finish the sentence and stared the cuffed boy down and scrunched his nose.

"Isn't it long pass time for middle-schoolers to be home."

"What! I'm in high school thank you very much." Shouyo shot back, pissed.

"I did a body check and he's not armed. He probably was just wondering around."

The shorter man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose "Every single one of them. Uncuff him Kuroo."

"Sure thing, Yakkun."

The moment the taller black haired man uncuffed him, gunshots were fired in the distance bringing them all to attention.

"Shit, it started. Yakkun!"

"On it." The shorter officer took off.

"Hey, kid make sure you go straight home. It's not a night to be out." After he said that and took his handcuffs back, placing them back on his belt where they’re supposed to be, he bolted off  
towards the direction of the gunshots.

Shouyo sighed, relieved. His childish look and height did play a huge part in sliding him out of trouble a majority of the time.

By the time he got home, it was already way past midnight and Natsu was already snuggled in bed. Shouyo was exhausted from the events of the night. He took a brief shower and retreated into the comfort and warmth of his futon and it didn't take it long to snuggle in and fall asleep.

——

Tuesday came in more quickly than Shouyo wanted it too. Matsukawa's instructions were to retrieve some top secret documents that was stolen from his office. Shouyo didn't know the guy but he was pretty dumb to make an enemy of the yakuza.

According to the information brokers, the target was supposed to be arriving at Bank of Japan's main branch at around three. The man probably thought that was a smart move since the syndicate wouldn't be able to launch an attack on such a high security building.

How wrong he was.

Turning on Matsukawa was the biggest mistake anyone could ever make.

Shouyo had memorised the mans' facial features the night before. He was waiting at a bus station opposite the bank with his headphones on, not listening to anything, eyes scanning the people who were walking in and out of the bank.

It didn't take long for Shouyo to spot his target. He was wearing a white, long sleeved t-shirt and black slacks followed by three buff men in black suits who he assumed were the bodyguards he hired. "Target just walked in the building. Commencing plan," he said into his communication device and tailed them into the bank.

The building was full of mostly business men or people in queue and others sitting down waiting for their number to be called. He scanned the area, noting there are two armed security guards at the door and another three stationed around the building, not that it actually mattered since he wasn’t the one taking them out. His job was simple enough, contact and extraction.  
Getting to Ukai Keishin was hard enough on its own with his hired bodyguards getting in the way of everyone and him. Their presence was intimidating enough that everyone steered clear of  
them. He began to approach Ukai who was getting in another secluded section in the bank which was designed for VIPs.

Multiple shots were heard followed by screams and panicked voices. Several men wearing black suits. They were met with resistance from the security guards but it was futile as they were shot down just immediately before they could even lift their shotguns.

“Everybody put your hands up!”

It was time for him to make his move, walking towards his target that was basically hugging onto his bag to make sure it stayed safe. His bodyguards ushered him deeper into the bank since they were unarmed and Shouyo was glad for that. If they had guns, if would definitely have been a shootout between the robber and Ukai’s men, not that he has never been in the middle of one before but thankfully they were in a bank and they had to enter unarmed. They might’ve been twice his size but he had technique ingrained into his body for years now and it was all from ‘do or die’ situations.

He had to retrieve the file without being caught. He had visualized several scenarios in that moment and the one with the highest possibility of success was probably by directly confronting them.  
He stealthily snuck up on one of the men and knocked him unconscious from the back and he let out a grunt which was unheard in the midst of the chaos but the sound of his fall was loud enough, it caught the attention of Ukai and his other guard.

“Shit” they both sprung into action seeing their fallen comrade unconscious on the floor. The bodyguard yelled something along the lines of getting himself to safety while he holds Shouyo back.  
Never look down on you opponent, was something that was drilled into him and he held it to heart because most of his opponents fell by his hands because they underestimated his capabilities  
after laying eyes on him and it was the same this time around. There was that smug look on his face, probably thinking of how easy it was going to be deliver the final blow to him, given his size advantage.

The man charged at him first and Shouyo side stepped managing to avoid a blow to his cheek. He ducked and punched the man in the stomach earning a grunt and aiming for his body’s weak point, the back of his knee making him fall to his knees but the other reacted quickly blocking Shouyo’s hit. The bodyguards’ reflexes was probably the reason he was hired but where agility was involved, Shouyo would never lose.

He managed to bring him down but he was pretty beaten up and spent. Not getting any time to take a breath, he had to go after Ukai before he lost track of him and he’s already lost sight of the man. “Damn it.”

The robbers were gathering up civilians as hostages, pushing them all towards a single area and there was only so much time he could avoid them without being caught himself. Although they were both under the orders from the same person, Shouyo had direct orders from Matssun himself and it was a undercover mission so they weren’t exactly on the same page or were even informed of Shouyo’s mission.

He had to get to Ukai quick before he got caught. Luckily, the bank was big enough for him to temporarily stay out of their sight for a while. Shouyo followed the path Ukai took earlier and was glad it was only a single corridor path. He didn’t waste any time pursuing him and picked up his pace.  
He opened the door to what looked like a conference room, the large room was minimally decorated with pictures of the king and queen and a few other significant country people he never actually bothered to learn off their names. Bulletin boards pinned with upcoming events, announcements papers and statistics of the months profit or loss and confusing large amount of numerals by the millions. Numbers he could never fathom a single person could own, but some do - he does. A long conference table positioned in the middle of the room, separating him and his target who was staring back at him.

“To think the syndicate would send a kid after me - really makes me wonder if what I stole really was anything important.”

“Give it back.”

“And then what? Die? I’ve betrayed the syndicate, they’ll never let me leave this place alive.” he set his briefcase on the table. “The documents in this file could bring down the whole syndicate, proof of their transaction, all their activities within the past 6 months, all their deals in the country. No matter what kind of strings they pull, this one - these papers would have the law damn them.”

“The syndicate can’t die, not even if you kill their oyabun. They just can’t.”

“They’ve got you too, don’t they.” _hostages_ , he didn’t have to say it for Shouyo to get it. It’s just how it works. They always grab your weaknesses to make sure noone would double cross them once in a while you’d get brave souls like Ukai who’d had enough with their shit and defy them.

“If you won’t give it back, I won’t have a choice but to use force but I won’t kill you.”

“Oh how generous of you, but they’ve taken everything from me - they took my son. They made me -”. He covered his mouth as if to stop himself from throwing up when the memories resurfaced and a tear trailer down his cheek but he fought the urge, he had something to accomplish now. “I have nothing left. It’s about time someone did something permanent.” The grief in his eyes turned icy and all that was left his anger.

Shoyou made the first move, jumping over the table moving straight to his target but missed the suitcase by an inch. Ukai had kept his guard up and was cautious against the boy’s every move and was waiting for him to do something.

“Hand it over!” Shouyo gave his final warning.

“Over my dead body.” his voice full of spite.

“So be it.”  
The two exchanged blows, landing their fist onto the other without mercy or compassion. It was a dog eat dog world and a misstep could cause their lives. They had families and loved ones to protect and couldn’t fall here. Not now.

 

-2 years ago-

_“Dad, I got accepted into Nohebi Academy!” the door swung open startling the middle aged man, sitting on his desk, paperwork sprawled on the table and his work laptop open._  
_A young boy entered his dad’s study, flailing around a white sheet of paper in his hands, the boy had been waiting for hours staring outside the window waiting for the postman to deliver his rounds and for his letter to arrive._

_“Amazing! I told you, you could do it and my instincts are never wrong, is it? I’m so proud of you, son.” He pulled his son over and gave him a big affectionate, proud dad hug._

_**_

_“Takashi, where are you going?” Ukai demanded._  
_The younger stormed off and slammed the front door after a scrimish they had over dinner and about his social habits. Takashi had been going out with his friends almost everyday and would come back home late with a lingering tobacco smell on his shirt. It wasn’t the first time they fought after he got into high school and started rebelling against his father but it was almost midnight and he still hadn’t come home and Ukai was getting worried._

_He stayed up all night waiting for his son to returned but no one walked through the front door all night and he before he knew it, he dozed off on the living room sofa. The next morning, he was woken up from his sleep by his phone buzzing. It was dawn and the sun had barely risen and it was still dark out. He groaned and reached out for his phone on the coffee table, to snooze the alarm, not remembering why he was there in the first place._

_He stared at his screen for quite a while to realise that it wasn’t his alarm that ringing but an incoming call from his son, “Takashi♡”. All the events of last night flooded back into his memories and he immediately sat up and answered his phone._

_“Takashi, are you alright? Where are you?”_

_“Dad?”. A quiet voice called out from the other side of the line. “Dad, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” there was a soft sniffle then another._

_“Hey, hey, hey. What’s up, son? What’s going on?”. He asked in a calming voice, his parental instincts peaked when he sensed Takashi’s distress._

_“I- I didn’t mean to. I was just so angry, I wasn’t thinking straight.” another sniffle. “Dad, dad I’m scared, I’m so so scared. I’m so sorry, dad.” his pitch gradually went up through the sentence and was clearly panicked._

_“Takashi, what happened? Where are you?”. His son’s agitation was starting to get to him but he still had to stay calm, for his son’s sake. However confused he was, he had to keep it together._  
_He heard laughter come from the other line, it was muffled at first and got hysterical. His first thought was that his son had pranked him until heard the man took the phone on the other line and spoke. His heart dropped in a heartbeat, fear and anguish filled his mind. He knew that voice, he never forgot, even if he wanted to._

_“Hello, you still there? Hello...” the man on the other line called out after Ukai went completely silent._

_“What do you want?”_

_“We just saw your son wandering around our turf, so we just thought we’d say hello.”_

_“You fucker, we made a deal! We made a deal that you wouldn’t ever touch my family ever again.” he shouted into the receiver._

_“Aww, come on, now. Is that any way to treat the man whos’ treating your son like a guest. The storage house you were in charge of.” his voice changed to a more serious tone at the end._

_“Dad, no! You can’t come here!” Takashi shouted from the background, warning his dad and he got quite a beating for speaking up without permission._

_He heard shouts telling his son to shut up and heard his son scream in pain. He couldn’t do anything at all but listen on the other line and scream his sons name over and over again, fist clenched._

_“Takashi! I’d do anything please - just don’t hurt my son, please.” he pleaded._

_“Very well, then. We’ll see you soon.” the man on the other line said and the line was cut._

_Ukai rushed out the door, not bothering to change and grabbed his car keys. He rummaged through his bedside drawer and pulled out a pistol, trailing his fingers along the body, admiring it,_  
_and fiddling with the trigger - his pistol. He stared at it, recalling the days it was always in his hands, the only thing he could ever count on when he was in trouble. It hasn’t been used it years and hope he never again. He checked the bullets and safety before tucking it at the back of his jeans._

_The drive there felt like hours, his thought kept on drifting away and only imagined the worst. Before he left his car, he released his gun safety and returned it to its rightful place._  
_His arrival was welcomed and they showed no menace, which scared him. They’re the yakuza and they’re supposed to intimidate their enemies. They didn’t even bother doing a body check on him._

_They open the the door to the control room and he heard his son call out. “DAD! Why are you here, you’re not supposed to be here.”_

_Takashi was tied to a chair and was alive. That’s when Ukai realised how tense he was the whole time, his muscles relaxed and he could feel the tingle throughout his body, from the sudden release of blood flow. He ran over to his son and hugged him, tight._

_“No, what are you doing? You have to go back now. It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have ran off like that, I’m so sorry, dad. I love you. It’s all my fault.” tears rolling down his cheeks from his intense swirling emotions, fear and relief._

_“Hey, hey, look at me.” he raised his son’s head, “Don’t beat yourself up over it. I was at fault too, I shouldn’t have raised my voice at you like that.”_

_“What a touching reunion. A dad coming after his son after he ran away from home. We all love a touching story, don’t we? After all, we live in a world of suffering and anguish, we need a break from that sometimes.”_

_“What do you want from me.”_

 

-Present-

The two were out of breath and had their fair share of bruises, and Shouyo was pinned to the ground with a Ukai on top of him ready to send his final blow.

Shouyo was physically exhausted, it might have been due to the fact that he had to fend off two guys earlier, but Ukai was skilled in his martial arts. He managed to fend off most of Ukai’s attacks and has been wearing him out. The older was only defending himself and hasn’t once gone on the offensive side even when he could’ve had. He was only wearing the younger out and it was working. Shouyo’s breath was ragged and heavy.

Ukai had him just where he wanted, Shouyo couldn’t move a single muscle, his limbs were perfectly pinned down and he had a fist to his face. “I can’t, you remind me so much of him.” He stopped just before his fist connected to Shouyo’s face.

The anger in his eyes were gone and was replaced with sadness. His vision grew blurry as tears popped his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. His legs buckled and he gave up Shouyo took the breifcase.

“I’m sorry about your son, but I too have people I need to protect.” and left the older back there to himself, weeping.

After the whole ordeal was over, he finally had some time to relax a little. He leaned his back onto the walls of the corridor and dropped to the floor, completely spent. His hands were throbbing and there was definitely going to be bruise marks appearing on his body later tonight.

He heard muffled shouting coming from the hostages who were being rallied and being told to shut up. He heard the wailing of sirens outside the bank and an officer shouting through the megaphones to the robbers. Which meant, the front door was totally out of the question and the doors to the back were mostly code accessed, luckily he had the access code because the list of things the yakuza could get their hands on were endless and knew no limits.

The back door alley was empty, seeing as the police had probably blocked off the roads but were dumb enough to not guard the back door to his relief. The breifcase safely retrieved, he put up his hoodie to hide his face from security cameras or onlookers who could identify him.

His relief was short lived when a familiar voice called out to him.

 

"Hey kid, fancy meeting you again."

Shouyo stared at the tall black haired police man in his way.  
"Who are you?" Of course he knew.

"Sergeant Kuroo, we met few nights ago...and I think you know what I'm talking about."

The sergeant was staring the boy down hard as if trying to figure out what was going through the teenager's mind.  
Oh, you mean the night you pointed a gun at a minor. "Ohh, it was dark and I didn't get a good look at your face." he said, dragging the 'o' in his ohh.

"You came out from the bank didn't you? We need a witness so it would help if you could give a statement," he politely asked.

"I'm sorry, I was pretty shaken up during the whole thing so I probably wouldn't help much."

"Really? You looked pretty calm. Just like that night when you had a gun pointed at you," he paused to analyse the younger's face.

"What's your point?" he began to growl.

"I'm just saying, how'd you get access to the back door exit to escape - and you were also near a crime scene last week, weren't you?" It was more of a statement than a question. "So, will you come in for questioning?"

"What if I say no?"

"Well I have the authority to arrest anyone suspicious, you see." giving his best scheming smile and his grip already on his wrist..

"What the fuck, Kuroo. If you’re gonna call at least and-" The moment Kuroo divided his attention to Yaku, Shouyo freed his wrist on one swift motion and jabbed Kuroo in the stomach and if he wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest he might've passed out. He was quick to react to the youngers' attacks and countered with his own. The boy skillfully reacted to the sergeants attacks.

"Every single fucking one of you! Every damn time." Yaku was pissed, being dragged into one of Kuroo’s antics again.

"Hey kid." Shouyo turned just in time to block Yaku's punch before Kuroo's fist connected with his cheek. In his pain, he crouched down and swung his leg to Kuroo, tripping him using his feet and when Kuroo fell to the ground, he had one less man to worry about and kicked Yaku in the stomach. Hard. Making him stumble back and coughing for air. He hadn't been in a fight recently and he was already out of breath from the lack of practice.

"Did no one teach you not to ignore you opponents when fighting?" Fatigue plagued him and before he could react, Kuroo had attacked the back of his kneecaps, making his knees buckle and he fell to the floor. He quickly tried to get back up but Kuroo pushed his back to the ground with a loud thud that kicked out all the air in his lungs and pinned the boy to the ground, cuffs already at the ready. Shouyo's struggle was in vain under Kuroo's weight and all he could do was shout curse words at the sergeant.

"Why thank you for your kind words. You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh!! I can't wait to post the next chapter honestly!! I've got so many ideas to write down and probably not enough time
> 
> The original plan was to kill Ukai but I'm sorry i just couldnt do it :'(  
> I'll try to post on schedule every 3 weeks because 5k words per chapter is alot and im taking a medical degree which is already killing me, so bear with my 3 weeks.
> 
> Don't forget to leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed it heheh XD


	2. Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been in my drafts since forever and i think its finally done? honestly im dying with this 5k words per chapter that im setting for myself, its really fun to write but at the same time it tires me out and takes up so much of my time why am i even doing this to myself

Shouyo found himself in an empty grey room with no furniture to decorate except for the table in front of him and another chair positioned opposite of him, he could see his own reflection in the mirror, knowing well enough it was a one-way mirror from all the detective shows he’d watched. It was quiet and all he could hear was the ticking of the clock on the wall showing it was well past five in the evening, he had been stuck here for more than half an hour. Robbed of all his belongings, he had no choice but to make do with the boredom plaguing him, his head on the table and tapping his nails on the table creating random tunes or humming to a melody.

He stayed there dazed, his mind elsewhere when the sound of the doorknob turning brought him out of his daze. He lazily rested his chin on his palm, elbow supporting them, only his eyes followed the man who walked in,. He set a brown folder he was holding on the table before pulling out the empty seat from the table and taking a seat opposite of him.

The man wore a grey coloured t-shirt that matched his own hair colour. He had a beauty mark right below his left eye. His silky hair falling before his dark brown eyes and were hidden behind his long pretty lashes. A clean haircut that showed off his slender neck.

He snapped out of his trance when the beautiful man looked up to him and smiled.

"Hello, Hinata-kun. I'm Sugawara, your -"

"My interrogator?" his eyes staring hard into Suga's that usually broke his enemies spirit but Suga wasn't at all fazed. He wouldn't be in this line of work if he had a weak heart.

Suga let out somewhat a laugh"Let's not use such a scary word. I just want to ask some questions."

Shoyou kept his guard up and waited for the man to continue. Suga was flipping through his files looking at the report about the robbery earlier in the day.

"Hinata-kun, I'll get straight to the point. What were you doing at the bank?"

Hearing that, he kept quiet. Suga waited a while and sighed when the silence dragged on and none of his questions were answered.

"Honestly Hinata-kun, we don't have enough proof to hold you here but you did assault one of our officers and we can't turn a blind eye on that." Suga continued. "We don't want to keep you here as much as you don't want to be here."

“You could always just send me home.” he finally countered.

Suga sighed, looking helpless at their progress and stood up and left the room leaving Shouyo alone in the room again.

Back in the other room and on the other side of the mirror, Kuroo was watching the whole thing with Yaku until Suga left and entered the room they're in. "So how was it?" Kuroo asked.

He sighed. "Well you saw it, he hardly said anything. How are things on your side?"

It was his turn to sigh. "This kid literally has nothing on him, other than his name we don't know his address, family contact, no crime records, the system has absolutely nothing on him."

"Why don't you just, you know - let him go and do a stakeout?"

"Yakkun, did that just come out of your mouth?" Kuroo looked suprised .

"Since you're so interested in this kid." Yaku shrugged.

"That's called stalking guys." Suga added to the two's conversations.

"I'm just saying, that this kid has something to do with this case and the raid a few days ago. We just have to find out what he is." Kuroo countered.

"Uhh, so do I release him?" There was silence in the room until Suga broke it, pointing towards the boy in the other room through the glass. Kuroo was deep in thought,  silent and the other two were looking at him for a decision. In the end, he waved his arm to tell Suga to release him.

Suga left the room as saw him re-entering the interrogation room to tell Shouyo he was being released. Shouyo left the room without further a due when they came back with all his belongings that consisted of his phone, his wallet consisting on his IDs and the scarce money he had left for the month, house keys and the black briefcase, still locked to his relief.  

It was past dark when Shouyo got back to the rundown apartment tired and in need of some sleep. Going through his pockets for the house key, he unlocked the door with a click and turned the doorknob and was ambushed by a small oranged hair girl. "Oni-chan!"

The impact pushed Shouyo back out of the house and he bumped his back onto the iron railings of the apartment. "Ouch, Natsu what was that for?"

"Where were you?" she raised her voice which startled him and he went silent. Her hands wrapped around his waist and was grabbing onto his shirt. "I was so worried. There was that bank robbery this morning and then you never came home. I thought - I thought something happened to you!" she sobbed, head buried onto his chest.

It took him a moment to realise she was crying. He gently placed his hand on on her head,  stroking her hair calming her down. "I'm sorry."

They both just stayed there and he waited for her sobbing to cease before guiding her back into the house. "I'll make dinner today."

In the kitchen, he was rummaging through the fridge to see what kind of simple cooking he could do today while Natsu sat on front of the TV. Though their house was furnished with only necessities with a special exclusion of the TV, their fridge was surprisingly always well fed with vegetables and meat to all kinds of cooking sauces and spices. Apparently Natsu believed in happiness is from being fully fed and her brother also was one of the reason. He could eat for hours on end and if there wasn't any food he'd live on instant noodles and meat buns.

In the end, he decided to go with fried chicken to make it up to Natsu, for the vegetables, he had mastered the art of dumping them in a pan and sprinkle some fish sauce on it for taste and what could ever go wrong with fish sauce other than it being too salty. He also noted to not forget to flip the rice cooker level and double checked it. Lastly, he searched the cupboard for miso paste and added and generous amount of it into a pot of hot water and swirled it until it was boiling and gave it a little taste before approving of it.

"Natsu, can you get the table ready? I'm almost done." he called out to her.  

The kitchen and the living were right next to each other so they never had to yell or anything for the to hear. He heard volume of the TV lowering and footsteps coming towards the kitchen. "Argh that smells so good!" as she peeked over him to see what sort of magic he was cooking up and proceeded to grab the cups and plates over by the sink.

She set both plates by the rice cooker and scooped her portioned before moving over to Shouyo to get the rest of her dinner on her plate before he did. She placed her plate on the dinner table and came back to pour water for the both of them when she remembered she forgot to take the miso soup as well.

After the both of them we're settled down and seated, they both clapped their hands to together as thanks for the food. "This is actually pretty good for you Oni-chan. You might just surpass me one in another 50 years." she commented after taking the first bite and savouring it.

"I still don't get how got better than me at it despite, me being the one who taught you." He scratched his head, confused.

"It's called talent. Ohh, by the way Oni-chan, I joined the cookery club today and it was amazing! The senpais' made us some cookies to celebrate us joining and it was so fun and apparently our school is good enough to compete at high level competitions and they might be selecting first years too this year."

"Really, that's amazing! You totally could made the cut Natsu." he cheered her on.

"I wonder about that but I want to try." she said sheepishly.

"Come on, your cooking is the best I've ever tasted. Don't doubt yourself and just go for it."

"I guess."

There was a short silence, before Natsu made her resolve and decided for it.

"What dish should I make?"

"Meatbuns!"

After dinner, they cleaned up the mess they made and Natsu took a hot shower to freshen up and already had her school books sprayed on the table textbook and notebooks overlapping each other. Unfortunately for her, she had a stack of work to finish though they were all only a page or two worth per subject, the pile in itself made her sigh. She decided to start with her least favourite, japanese language. She had to write a summary on a short paragraph from the above text, followed by science and saving maths for last.

She was halfway through the essay when Shouyo peeked over and said that it looked revolting before stepping into the shower. Leaving Natsu in the living room alone with only the sounds of the clock ticking away and her occasional groaning, a side effect of studying.

She tapped her pen away or started to doodle away on her notebook instead of actually doing work or just blankly staring at the ceiling with a blank face, probably only finish up her work at a one to five ratio. The sound of the shower stopping brought her back and she decided to actually finish up the last of her work and retiring for the night.

Shouyo got out of the steaming shower refreshed and looking happier than ever. All the stress and strain of the day leaving his muscles, melted away and washed away by the shower. "That felt amazing! Are you still not done?" he sat down on the other side of the small square table and peeked at her notebook. "What's this? It's all circles and lines."

"You're supposed to find the angles of the triangles in the circle." She explained to him, showing him how it's done and how there's specific set rules you need to already know to solve it. She let him solve a few of the questions instead and everytime he solved it, his eyes would literally in every sense sparkle. “Honestly, I can't even remember doing this back in middle school. Teach me again sometimes., kay!"  

 

\----

Several days past and their days went by as usual with Natsu attending school and Shouyo working odd jobs whenever he was off a shift or when he was fired, which was rare. Despite having worked in the underworld, he was surprisingly good at jobs which were heavy on customer service and often his employers and customers would take a liking to him because of his naturally friendly nature and a smile as bright as the sun itself, he often left his customers blinded with his aura.

The bank robbery was completely a thing of the past by now as weeks have past and the news have stopped mentioning it. The fact she cried that night still plagued his conscience every so often but he couldn't do anything about it, could he. They were both birds trapped in a cage, freedom robbed away from them the moment they accepted _their_ help that night.

Natsu was vaguely aware of the things her brother had been keeping secret from her. At first she thought it was just him getting caught in fights with the neighbourhood thugs but some nights he'd come back home bleeding from a knife cut and other terrible injuries. She would have to treat them for him all the time or on some nights he wouldn't come home at all.

Despite that, Shouyo never once got her involved in any of his fights or even brought the topic up with her. The first time he came home injured, a man brought him back bleeding and heavily bandaged and it happened was when she was only eleven and no child should ever witness her own brother bleeding half to death from an injury. Since then she began to teach herself how to perform first aid learning how to treat his injuries,  some minor while other made him bed ridden for days and over the years, she became adept to it but she never got used to the fact he's injured.

"Hinata-san, the homeroom teacher is calling for you in the staffroom." one of her classmates called out to her.

"Alright. Thanks!" she stood up from her seat and left the classroom for the staffroom.

She announced herself upon arrival and made her way to her homeroom's table. Having had to turn homework there before, she had no problem finding her teacher in the midst off all teacher's tables.

"Sensei, you called me?" she asked him tilting her head making her tied up, messy orange hair  in fluffy pigtails bounce a little.

"Good you're here. Come follow me for a bit, there's someone who wanted to meet you." he said as he got up from his table and guided her out of the room and into the corridor.

They didn't go far and she wondered if she was in trouble since he didn't say anything else other that telling her to follow him and she could feel the tension prickling in the air. "Sensei did I do something wrong?" her voice nervous.

His strides slowed down when they got the counselling room that were usually used by the guidance counsellors, mostly for the third year students. "For your sake I hope you didn't." he replied.

Her breath hitched as he said that to her.

He motioned for her to enter the room and her heart rate started picking up. Why did he have to put it that way? She was more nervous than she should've been and his gestures weren't helping in the least. Who was behind that door that made him so nervous. She took a deep breath before sliding the door open and entering before closing it behind her.

The room was dimly lit with only the sunlight seeping the glass window to light up the room. A silhouette of a man sitting by the window, blinded by the sun in the seat in front of her. She cautiously walked over the the silhouette, each step closer to him, his facial features started to show through, black messy hair. She gulped down her saliva. She noted he was wearing formal black office wear. He was definitely not a part of the faculty.

Nervously, she pulled out the chair tucked under the table to sit opposite of the man, facing him. "Go- good afternoon."

"Hinata Natsu. Am I right?" the man finally said. "My name is Kuroo Tetsurou, a police officer." sliding his badge over to her as proof of his positon.

"Yes, I am. Am I in trouble?"

"You're not, but your brother is Hinata Shouyo, am I right?"

At the mention of her brother's name, her eyes went wide and she stood up too quickly making  her chair topple over behind her. "Is Oni-chan okay? Did something happen?" her voice a little too loud in the room, startling Kuroo but his business face was plastered back on his face right after.

"Hinata-san, calm down. Rest assured nothing has happened to your brother but we do have some questions."

She apologised for her sudden outburst but Kuroo just waved it off as it didn't bother him at all. She audibly sighed, relief flooding over her and grabbed the chair and put it back to a sitting position for her to take her seat again.

He asked her several questions and she proceeded to answer them however she could and Kuroo wrote them down in his notebook, the sound of pen scratching on paper and their voices talking in turns, back and forth. He kept things professional and only asked relevant questions and sometimes bringing up small talks about his cat, Kenma, after discovering she loved cats too. He wanted her to feel relaxed realising she was anxious from her fingers fiddling and fidgeting. He was well known to be a master of provocation but not many knew the soft side of him and could make anyone lower their guard down and managed to bring up light giggles from her sometimes, telling her Kenma's mischievous adventures and how he likes too coop himself at home.

"Alright, I don't want to coop you up here for so long but if you don't mind, would you come to the station with me." he asked.

Since school hours was about to end in slightly more than an hour, Kuroo suggested that she stay in class until school was over and he'd drive her down to the station. She hesitantly accepted the offer and was returned to class, entering halfway through a lesson and got stares from the classmates as she entered. Yukie, her bestfriend looked worried but she was told that it was classified so she couldn't tell it to her.

Lessons continued and Natsu could barely focus in class with all the white noise buzzing in her head. Trying to drown them out only consumed more of her energy so she just let it take over her mind to take her where ever it was going, drowning out the classroom instead.

The bell rang signalling the end of school, and Natsu packed her belongings in a hurry, not wanting to make the Sergeant wait any longer than he already has. She apologised to her friend because she couldn't walk home with her today but Yukie told her it was fine and told her to do whatever important errand she had to get over with.

Outside of the school gates, spotting the sergeant was an easy feat. Just follow the crowd and look for the police car, a tall lean man sipping canned coffee, his back up against the vehicle. He attracted quite the attention just by standing there, a couple of girls giggling nearby and nudging each other with their elbows. She walked up to him and gave a small bow. "Are you ready?" he asked.

She gave a tiny nod just enough for him to notice it. "Alright, let's go."

He opened the door for her by the sidewalk and motioned for her to go in with a practiced smile which made her wonder if he gave them when arresting criminals too but the smile was far too polite for that. When she was sat comfortably, he shut the door and walked in front of the car over to the driver's seat.

Kuroo started the car and drove off.

They both sat in silence, neither said anything as the air started weighing down on them again. It was just awkward to be in a stranger’s car, with a man she just met not more than 2 hours ago but she felt strangely safe. Maybe it was because Kuroo was an officer and they’re supposed to protect citizens from harm instead of causing it. Deep inside she wondered if this is what it feels like to have a good father but she immediately pushed the thought away because there was no use in thinking that way. He had her brother and he had her, that’s all they needed.

“Wanna listen to the radio?” he offered.

“Yeah sure.” she answered chirpily, trying to rid of the atmosphere and having some music around certainly  did help.

Their silence eventually turned out to be quite the comfortable one after a while.

She looked out the window and stared at passing cars and buildings of Tokyo, thinking when was the last time she had been in a car like this. Not long after, they arrived at the police station and Kuroo skillfully parked his police car in the reserved box assigned for their officers right in front of the main door. Only after Kuroo turned off the engine and undid his seatbelt that she took it as her cue to do the same, and swung the door open. 

She followed in his steps, walking cautiously behind him as she took in the sight of the police station. It wasn’t huge but it certainly wasn’t small either and she was sure it took up at least 3 floors of the building and the signboard overhead that read Shibuya Police Station.

They entered the building and cool air enveloped her and the smell of freshly printed papers and also the smell that most offices have. Natsu eyes landed on the reception desk and the receptionist who was squinting his eyes at their computer screen in front of him, clearly annoyed at something. Their arrival went unnoticed until Kuroo cleared his throat announcing his arrival. “Hey, Tsukishima.” 

The blonde stumbled, surprised by Kuroo sudden arrival and clicked on multiple buttons on his keyboard before looking up to face him.

“K- Kuroo, welcome back. Who’s the young lady with you?” he asked eyeing at the small orange head who hid behind the latter, poking her head out. 

“She’s Hinata-san who’s here just for a few questions.” he swiftly replied. “Is Yaku in?”

 “Yaku-san just went out but I think he’ll be back soon.”

 “Alright, thanks. Also, stop playing Tetris when you’re working.” Kuroo reminded.

 After the exchange, Kuroo guided Natsu past the help desk and to an elevator where they ascended to the second floor of the building where all the officers were sat. Tables rowed the area like a regular office you’d see in law and order but there just wasn’t any action going on. Some were either penning information down on a piece of paper while others were just doing something that didn’t look like work on their computers. They walked right in the middle of the office, past all the officers which got a few heads to look up who glanced up from their work to look at Natsu then Kuroo and back to her.

She was led into a smaller office that seemed more domestic instead of an actual office, apart from the single wooden table and a comfortable looking chair behind it. She also noticed the silver name plate that said “Sergeant Kuroo”. The room was overlooked the whole office, clearly observing who was doing work and who wasn’t. He closed the blinds halfway, to give the both of them more privacy but not all the way incase she didn’t feel too comfortable. He came around to take his seat in his rightful leather chair and facing her.

“First, I apologise for bringing you all the way here and thank you for being cooperative.” he started.

“No, it’s alright. It’s not like I was busy. Plus, I- I’m worried about my brother.”

“Hinata Shouyo, huh. He’s an enigma. Hinata-san, I’m going to say this straight up but we speculate that your brother might be involved in some illegal activities.” 

Her eyes blew wide “That! That’s not true..” she said loudly before dialing it done.

“Well, calm down. These are all just speculations, we still don’t have any proof. Usually we would contact both your guardians first but since he’s a minor but we can’t reach either of them. Could they be outstation perhaps?”

 She sucked on her teeth and clenched her fist that were rested on her thighs. “Th- They’re not around anymore.” she confessed in a quiet voice he could barely hear the words.

 His eyes narrowed at the new piece of information. Kenma never got any information on either of them. “Did they pass?” he tried sound apologetic, he mastered that too in his days of empathising with victims but the gears in his head was spinning while processing this new information trying to piece them together.

“Mum.”

“What about your dad?”

She shook her head and said nothing. He tried asking a few more questions but she looked down and kept her mouth shut. “I’m sorry.” her tiny little hands were clenched tightly, knuckles white and her voice shaky.

He got out of his seat and crouched next to her chair, hoping to be a source of comfort for her. He was plenty tall enough on his own and when he was on his knees he was slightly lower from her line of sight.  “It’s alright. I hope I didn’t bring back any bad memories.” he smiled softly.

She lifted her eyes meeting his and back down to her hands. He “Do you want some coffee.. or tea? We have both.” He offered coffee on an impulse but realised that maybe it would be too bitter for a 13 year old so he offered tea instead.

“Tea.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” 

He closed the door to his office as he left for the pantry and telling her to make herself comfortable.

Fiddling with her fingers at the absence of things to do, she took out her cell phone and typed out a message to her brother.

 

\--

Kuroo rummaged through the cabinets in front of him looking for the box of tea sachets that was supposed to be somewhere near his coffee. He rarely and close to never drinks tea whether it being at the office or home not because he dislikes it or anything but he was just a coffee person. It was his usual routine to have it in the morning to wake him up and at random times during the day and caffeine runs through his blood and powers him up. During difficult cases he would sometimes eat, drink and sleep coffee to crack it and often gets hit by Yaku for doing that.

Despite living on caffeine, he’d like to think that he could make a decent cup of tea at the age of 24. It’s just two or three spoons of sugar, hot water and a tea bag. What could possibly go wrong?

He flipped the switch on the kettle and took up two mugs for himself and the young girl while waiting for the water to boil, added two cubes of sugar to her mug and the 3-in-1 coffee sachet to his. It was easy and convenient and for sure to be impossible to mess up. Akaashi, his colleague, however often told him it was an insult to coffee and totally ridiculous for some person to even come out with an idea of creating something so unrefined and kill the beauty of fresh ground beans, or so his argument went.

 His thoughts lingered to the things that happened in the past weeks and all his unanswered questions. He wasn’t sure if bringing Natsu here was the right thing to do or if his instincts were even right in the first place but he knew that these siblings aren’t your normal siblings. There was absolutely no data on them which was understandable considering they were still young and may have a clean record but after further researching, Kenma said they absolutely had nothing. There was no official documents or billing addresses in the house they lived in, nor any of their transaction. The had no paper trials on anything under their name,  which meant everything was paid in cash and fully paid for and they sure don’t have that kind of money. That in itself if suspicious on their own and they certainly have some connections to the syndicate and he was going to find that proof. 

Shouyo being there on the night of the raid and the bank robbery was probably not a coincidence either. It was too much of a coincidence. Something was definitely up with the siblings and Kuroo was determined to find out what it is. Natsu’s reaction to Kuroo when he mentioned her brother’s name was unusual, an initial shocked reaction would be understandable and the usual but she had fear in her eyes, a look he had seen much too many times in his line of work. 

For now, he knew their mum had passed away and the dad probably went MIA on the children, leaving them to fend for themselves or he just never comes home but he pays for their expenses or something like that and on top of that, on the day of the bank incident, the security camera were unfortunately being replaced when it happened. It was too much of a coincidence, nothing added up and  he had too little information.

The sound of the kettle switch flipping dragged Kuroo out of his thoughts, he poured the scalding water into both the mugs and carried them back to his office, where she was patiently waiting. Back in the room, she was standing behind the table and looking down at the frame with a tint of sadness and nostalgia.

“That’s my cousin and parents.” he said suddenly, startling her when she finally noticed his return.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” she apologised and turned her attention away from the frame.

 “No worries, it’s not like I have anything to hide in the first place.” he walked over to her and held out the mug if tea to her and sipped on his own coffee. She thankfully accepted the tea from him, noting it was still too hot to sip, she placed it on the table first.

 The two stood in silence before Natsu broke it with a question of her own. “Where are they now?”

 “My parents are down in Kobe. Hardly see them anymore though because of work.” he said, eyes downcast.

 “And your cousin, what about her? She’s very pretty.” Natsu said, remembering the silky long hair that resembled the sergeant himself, black and smooth and a beauty mark under her lips. Her huge smile on her face and they all posed for the camera. Kuroo and her on their knees while his parents were crouched down behind them with the same happy smile. Truly they seemed like a perfect happy family. Something she had never had a taste of because from the moment she could remember, she had an abusive father that would lash out on her brother and her every other day. The smell of alcohol and cigarette always lingered in the house no matter what time of the day it was or how much they cleaned. It was truly a living hell for as long as they could remember, until _that_ day.

“She was. She still is.”

Knocks came from the other side of the door and Kuroo told them to enter. “Hey, Yakkun. What’s up? You never knock.” Kuroo teased.

“Well, you had guest.” he looked over to Natsu and smiled politely. “Kuroo, a word outside please.”

With that he placed his coffee down and excused himself to speak to the caramel haired man. He was leaning just outside Kuroo’s office but out of her earshot.

 “What are you plotting bringing her here. I thought we were over this.” he crossed his arm and staring at the taller man. Although Yaku was about a head shorter than him , the way he carried himself made him seem as tall as the other man.

“Yaku, you know as well as I do that he was involved in all this. We can’t stop now after knowing that.”

“That’s the problem, Kuroo. We don’t know that. That kid has nothing on him, he’s clean!”

“Exactly. He has _nothing_ on him. Just how likely is that - in all the years we’ve been doing this?” he tried reasoning. “There is _definitely_ something going on with that family and I’m going to find out.”

Already used to his best friends’ and partner’s stubbornness, he hopelessly sighed. “Is anything I say going to change your mind?”

Kuroo gave him a cheeky smile that just said ‘no’. “I am not going to be responsible for anything if something happens.” he said and Kuroo lightly punched him on his shoulders.

“Kuroo-san, there’s someone downstairs claiming to be the brother of the girl you brought in. Should we bring him up?” someone who picked up the office phone called out.

The two men looked at each other as if they were having a telepathic conversation on how to deal with the current situation that lasted only a few seconds before they both nodded. Kuroo telling the man to bring the kid up to his office.

It wasn’t long before they heard the sound of the elevator arriving on their floor and the door opening revealing Akiteru and the shorter boy who clearly was not happy in the least, their eyes locked on each other almost immediately. Without being guided, Shouyo knew where he needed to be and walked in front of the receptionist, towards Kuroo.

“Where’s my sister?” he growled.

 “Calm down Hinata-kun, she’s in my office.” he pointed towards the door and the teen glared at him before barging into his office.

 “Oni-chan, what are you doing here? I told you not to come!”

“You think I’d let them keep you captive here. You could’ve said no. Why didn’t you refuse them? ”  chastised her, voiced raised. 

“You think I could’ve refused, do you know how worried I was when Kuroo-san came in and asked about you?” At this point she wasn’t scared or worried, annoyance and anger filled her through her brother’s actions. She simply couldn’t comprehend the fact why he was scolding her for something she didn’t do wrong. Sure, deep down she realises that Shouyo was probably worried sick for her since they were at a _police_ station, a place people like them would want to avoid at all cost but her rationality was clouded by her strong emotions.

 Shouyo felt guilty for snapping at her, he rarely did. They would have normal sibling arguments from time to time but they were less serious and were usually over small things. Though they get along very well compared to other sibling who pulled on each other’s hair, their fights were always petty insults and some immature remarks but that’s how sibling were generally are but this was different. The risk was too high this time

“That doesn’t mean that you can -” 

“I can’t live like this anymore. You’re always hurt, you never tell me anything and you pretend like nothing is wrong. At least let me help.” she complained her dissatisfaction and vented everything out.

“No.”

“Oni-chan!”

“Well why don’t we end this sibling quarrel for some other time.” he interjected himself into their fight to put an end to it. “ It’s getting late so why don’t you take you sister home, you were gonna do that anyways weren’t you? Do you have any guardian we could contact, your dad perhaps?”

“That shitty old man can go rot where ever he is.” 

“Well, why don’t you stay at my place.” Kuroo said nonchalantly, it more of a statement than a suggestion that got him three confused stares,  and more of a dumbfounded, stunned one from Yaku or stupefied, he wasn’t even sure.

He was immediately met by a “No way, are you crazy?” from both Shouyo and Yaku.

“Kid, the both of you are runaways, usually the police would send you straight back home but noone knows where your dad is and now that the police knows about your situation, we can’t actually leave it be. Right, Yaku?” 

“No, to hell with that - stop messing around.”

 “I’m not. I’m being serious here.”

“Listen up, old man. I don’t know what you’re up to but I’m not going to live with some stranger - especially you.” Shouyo explained with his hand in front of him as if to stop anymore of the man’s thoughts. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be going home. Let’s go Natsu.” he turned and walked out of the door followed by his sister who was a little more hesitant, as she lingered a little longer before following in pursuit.

“Plus you’re still minors, law says you can’t live alone without your parents permission. Take it as you’re under police custody in my house.” he added as if him revealing that would change his mind.

“I’ll pick you up tonight at 8, make sure you pack up.” he said as the both of them trotted out of his office and out of sight.

Kuroo watched them leave with a victorious smile. It wasn’t his best provocation work but it was passable, he was sure at least some of his words got to him, or he hoped it did.

“Get that smirk off your face.” Yaku rebuked, pissed wouldn’t exactly describe his feelings as he actually punched Kuroo on his back really hard earning him a coughing fit. “Good luck explaining this mess to Daichi.”

His friend had a habit of jumping straight into anything that catches his interest and has great instincts which makes him a great officer, recognised by his peers but it’s also his biggest downfall like what he’s getting himself into right now, totally unnecessary but he’s still doing it. After being stuck as his partner for almost 2 years now, he trusts Kuroo in his decisions most of the times after working by his side for years now but that doesn’t mean he can’t disagree with his ways at times.

Yaku right now was pissed at Kuroo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise Yaku is not a pissy person but I’m still working on his character, it’s just Kuroo brings out his pissy side. He’s actually a sweet caring soul. It’s only chapter 2 and we all need character depth.
> 
> also check out my twitter @bakaashins XD its absolute trash


	4. Chapter 4 ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to editing and proofreading it and at this point i dont even want to look at this chapter anymore... i had striggled alot writing this chapter and it's probably my worst work yet. The only saving grace for this chapter is future Kagehina uwu

Shouyo stood in front of his supposed to be classroom, a sign 3-1 posted outside of the classroom. When the students noticed his entrance, their chatters died down, some were curious while some didn’t seem to care. He hasn’t experienced this in a long time but he managed a simple self introduction in front of the whole class and that ended well. 

During break times, some of his classmates would walk up to him and ask him question and strike up a conversation with him which he was grateful for. He almost forgot how grueling the hours was sitting on his desk for hours on end but it wasn’t as bad, excluding the fact that he was absolutely clueless to what was being taught throughout the classes period, but he enjoyed it, just a little bit and just like that the day ended.

\--- 

 

Kenma knocked on the door and entered when the owner replied. “Hey Natsu-chan, Kuroo said we’re going out for dinner, get ready.” Natsu was lying on her stomach on the bed fiddling with her phone, hands typing away.

“Okay, what time are we leaving?” she asked, lifting her attention from her screen to the blonde. 

“In about half an hour.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready.” she said and went to her phone to type in a few final words before getting ready. 

Just before closing the door, he caught a glance of her smiling at her phone and it sparked some sweet memories of himself when he and Kuroo started dating.

Just next to her room, was Shouyo’s who was lazing around his room. 

“Hey, we’re going out for dinner in half an hour.”

“Yeah, I heard.” he laid on his side, now facing Kenma as he made his way into the room, kicking the pile of clothes on the floor to the corner of the laundry basket. 

“It’s pretty messy in here.” he sat on the floor by the bed and pulled out his game console. 

Shouyo was confused, why the blonde was casually hanging out in his room again? But didn’t bother questioning it or rather he stopped questioning it. He could hear clicks of the control buttons and the familiar background music from the game Kenma was playing. 

“Is that Mario?” he asked, voice going slightly higher and eyes shining looking over his shoulders. “I haven’t played that in forever!”

Kenma was surprised at the sudden interaction, Shouyo's face was right next to his and eyes staring at the screen with wonder.

“Umm, do you want to play?”.

“Seriously, can I?”

He passed the console over to Shouyo who excitedly took it. “It’s been so long since I last played Mario.”

Kenma explained the basic controls over to Shouyo and what he needed to do to get to the end flag after a few of his failed attempts and getting killed by the ‘turtle thingy’. 

They spent the next few tries trying to get Shouyo pass over the level. Since he play from where Kenma left out, so the difficulty level was quite high but that didn’t stop Shouyo from trying his best.

“Oh by the way, Natsu-chan seems to be -” Kenma paused, hesitant if he should tell the younger. “Oh, nothing, nevermind.” he’d figure she’d tell everyone when she’s ready and it’s not his place to tell Shouyo that she probably has a crush on someone.

__

The restaurant they went to was a nice seafood hotel restaurant with a cozy and friendly atmosphere. They were seated at a big round table, looking at the menu and deciding what to eat while waiting for Kuroo’s companions to arrive.

A man who looked like he was in his late 20’s approached their table followed by a caramel haired boy in his mid-teens. 

“Ushiwaka, you’re finally here!” he stood up from his chair to greet the man, who was as tall him or probably slightly taller. They shared a firm handshake, and had a small interaction before sitting down. The vibes between these two showed that they’ve known each other for a long time and got along quite well.

“Couldn’t miss a chance to eat good food. This is my nephew, Kenjirou. I think you’ve met him once before.” introducing the younger who was behind him.

“I’m Shirabu Kenjirou, nice you see you again, Kuroo-san. We’ve met during the New Years’ party.” he said, exchanging a handshake. 

“Right, Shirabu-kun.”

“Yeah, you probably were too drunk to remember anyone back then Kuroo.” Kenma interjected and Kuroo glared at him but the other didn’t think much of it. 

Everyone took their respective seats on the dinner table and Kuroo introduced Natsu and Shouyo to Ushijima and Shirabu. The dinner was basically to introduce the two into the family since they were more like a family friend and Wakatoshi was also in the police force and technically Kuroo’s senior, so if anything happened to either Kenma or himself, they could go to him straight. 

The night went by smoothly with nothing major happening, the food arrived and everyone was practically starving and finished the food without any problems. Shirabu was seated next to Shouyo and they got along pretty well, though both of them didn’t find anything they had in common to talk about the conversation among them went well. Shouyo was definitely good at interacting with other and he was starting to warm up to everyone and talks alot more than when he first arrived.

“Do you go to Nekoma too?” Shoyou asked.

“No. I’m in Fukurodani Academy.” 

“Cool, isn’t that a school for smart people? I mean just putting the word academy over it makes it sound so elite.”   
“Well, ‘academy’ or not it’s still a regular high school.” he replied with a smile on his face, a little confused but definitely amused by the redhead’s reaction when he started mumbling on and on about the word academy, wishing his high school had a cool name too.

“You’re a weird guy, Hinata-san” 

Natsu, on the other hand, was sitting next to Kenma and listening to the conversation and not long after she was apart of it. Her ability to adapt to situations and get along with people was astounding. She was just full of wonder and curiosity it had an effect on the people who are around her. Maybe it was just a ‘Hinata's family charm’ Kenma thought to himself because sometimes he experienced that ‘charm’ from her brother as well, though not as much as hers. 

“I’m gonna go to the toilet for a bit.” she told Kenma.

“Are you going to be okay alone? The toilet is pretty far from here.”

“I’ll be fine.” she got out of her seat and excused herself.

After quite some time has passed and she still hasn’t returned Kenma began to worry. “Shouyo, did Nacchan text you?”

Shouyo, “No.” 

Shouyo was about to leave and look for her but was stopped by Shirabu, “I’ll go check up on her, you don’t know where the toilets are, do you? She’s probably just lost.”

Shirabu walked over to where the toilets were and found out she wasn’t in the stalls after asking a few people that came out if they’ve seen an orange haired girl in there. He wasn’t that worried because they were in the hotel, so its relatively safer than the streets. He walked around the area where he’d think she would go or a place where it easy to get lost. 

Eventually he found her among the few people at the observation deck, watching over the waterworks display the hotel had. The coloured light transition made it seem like the water itself changes colour from red to pink, blue and to green. It was truly an amazing view, as if someone was standing there and casting spells to the water– making them change colors and dance in the air with the music playing in the background, it was like magic. 

Among them he could make out a silhouette of a girl with a small stature standing there, but she wasn’t alone. It seemed like they were talking but he couldn’t grasp the whole situation so he moved in closer to them and later, he pretty much got the gist of what was going on by their body language. The boy looked like he was about her age, he seemed to be one-sidedly making a move on her. The way he was leaning in way too close and the way she looked reluctant to talk to him but couldn’t get away. 

“Natsu-san, so you’ve been here the whole time? Everyone’s waiting for you.” Shirabu spoke from behind them, interrupting their conversation and relief washed over her face.

The other boy clearly look unpleased being interrupted but backed away when Shirabu glared at him. They usually back-off and would storm off probably due to the his cold glare. Even Natsu got intimidated and even though it wasn’t directed at her.

“Are you okay?” He asked in a concerned voice, a totally different person from before.

“Yeah, he was just being a little annoying.”

“Natsu-san, you should be more forward and say no when someone disturbs you like that. You need to tell them off.” 

“Easier said than done. Also, stop it with the ‘san’ you’re older than me. It feels - weird.”

“Then Natsu-chan?” she nodded in agreement and Shirabu told her to call him by him first name likewise.

When they got back, she apologised for being late, skipping the fact about the boy who was trying to hit on her and continued the rest of the dinner engaging in conversations. 

\--- 

Natsu and Shirabu eventually got closer and became very good friends, easily casting aside their 3 years age gap. Sometimes he would just come over to Kuroo’s place and hang out with the siblings, helping out with their studies and also had to teach Hinata as well since he missed all of high school. The two boys were almost studying the same thing because Shouyo had to catch up on the syllabus from the earlier years. 

Kuroo was even called in for help when the two boys started arguing on the dinner table because of how dumb Shouyo was which got on Shirabu’s nerves. Shouyo would poke fun at him when he didn’t know how to answer certain questions, knowing it would piss him off. He wasn’t an honour student but he still considers himself to be slightly above average academically. 

“Don’t ask me third year questions, I’m in first year Shouyo!”

“How would I know, if it’s a second or third year question, I never did any of it!” 

Shirabu, “Just read your textbook and answer it, everything should be in there. Oh my god!”

“But I don’t even know what was the question asking for.” Hinata exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air in a lost cause and desperation. But he flopped them back down again, hanging from the chairs. “School sucks, I'm definitely gonna fail high school.”

“You haven’t even tried and you’re already giving up?” Kenma walked up to the boys studying after hearing their shouting from upstairs.

“Kenma, you call this not trying?” he showed the pile of open books stacked on each other and stationaries on standby on the table just waiting to be used.

“What subject are you doing now?” he peeked over Shoyou’s shoulders and started reading the question intently and reached out for a pen and paper to write down his answers. “So, what you have to do is - balance the equation and then identify which units are missing and find out what they want. Find the moles, and sub in everything you have in this formula and voila!” he gave the paper back to Shouyo quite proud of being able to solve the question considering he hasn’t done any form of chemistry in years.

Shouyo just stared at him, face blank. “I have no idea what you just said. This is useless. I can’t do this!” he wailed and flopped off the chair and lay lifeless on the floor now. “I’m sorry but I just can’t. It’s too much for me.”

Seeing Shouyo so stressed out made Kenma feel like he needed to do something to support the boy. It was like some kind of paternal instinct in him suddenly surfaced up or maybe it was the fact that he could relate to the younger. Maybe it’s because they have been getting closer to each other recently that he feels the need to help a friend. He didn’t know which one it was but he just wanted to help the boy out. 

“I might have a friend who's a part-time tutor to help you. I’d have to ask him first since he stopped tutoring but he’s really good.” Kenma said.

“Really? I mean I guess that’s better than nothing.” 

Later that evening, Shirabu went home after finishing up most of his work and it was already dark outside. His home was only a few minutes away so it wasn’t that big of a deal if he had left later. Other than getting an earful from Ushijima, it was a safe neighborhood though he was sure he’d be able to take care of himself.

In his room, Kenma typed in a familiar name in his contact and a number immediate popped up and clicked on it. He placed his phone by his ears and heard it dail and heard it picked up.

“Hello.” the man on the other line answered.

“Hey Akaashi, sorry to bother but can I ask you for a favour?”

***

 

“Hinata, let’s have lunch together.” His friend called out to him asking him to join them for lunch. “Hold on, I’m going to get something to drink from the vending machine.”

His classes were on the third floor which meant he had to run down the stairs, through the hallways and past the gym. He heard the familiar squeaking sound of shoes against the wooden floors after passing there every so often.  
At the vendor, he feed the coins into the machine, and pressing the buttons, knowing exactly what he wanted to buy. He bends down to grab his drink.

Getting what he came for he was walking back to his classroom when he heard a melody. Shouyo stopped in his track, focusing his hearing to the music that was playing, it was faint but it’s definitely there. Curiosity taking over his actions, he walked towards the source of the music and ended up by a window that was slightly open. He could hear the melody of a piano coming from the other side of the glass and pried it open a little bit more, which he guessed was a music room.

Shouyo opened the window and peeked inside, resting his elbows on the window stills for support. It was the most breath taking moment he had ever had. The sounds of the piano seemed to wrap around him, each keys working together in unison and sent shivers down to his body as it resonated.

He wanted to see the person who was creating such beautiful melody, but their face was blocked by the grand piano in the room.

The melody sounded familiar but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It wasn’t classical for sure, more like a recent song on the radio but with a different arrangement. Shouyo loved the way the notes from the piano resonated within his body and it seemed to make him relaxed. His head leaning on his arms, resting and enjoying the music he heard.

Before he knew it, the piece had ended and he was left wanting for more. He didn’t realised he had closed his eyes but he was faced with a blonde beauty. Silky blonde fair fall just below her shoulders and she had a little piece of her hair tied up to the side with a cute star-shaped hair tie. Her clear hazel eyes stared straight into his, it made his heart skipped a beat.

“Hi, I’ve never seen you around before? Do you want to join the music club?”

“Um, no. I was just getting a drink and I heard someone playing the piano.” He confessed.

“Oh, did you like it?”

“It was amazing. You’re really amazing at playing the piano!”

The blonde giggled and accepted Shouyo’s compliment. “Thank you. Oh, what’s your name? I’m Yachi Hitoka.”

“Hinata Shouyo.”

“Oh, are you the new transfer student from 3-1?”

“Ye- yeah.” Shoyo was surprised how she knew him but the school wasn’t that big in the first place which was how she knew..

“I thought I’d find you here.” A voice came from behind her and she turned around to face the owner of the voice.

“Kageyama-kun, that’s rare for you to come here. Are you done with practice?”

The mention of practice made his mood turn sour and Shouyo could’ve sworn he heard him click his tongue. “Yamaguchi told me to get lost.”

“Isn’t it because he wants you to rest properly. It’s only been a week since you hurt your wrist, after all.”

The dark haired guy was mumbling to himself, still pouting at the fact he was kicked out of practice. “Who’s this shorty?” Kageyama asked Yachi after realising she was talking to someone before he came along

“Who are you calling a shorty, shorty!” Shouyo bit back.

“Who else if not you, you’re the only one here, boke.” Kageyama answered, genuinely confused.

Shouyo was fuming and would’ve jumped over the window to tackle the taller man if it weren’t for Yachi telling them both to calm down. 

“Right, I got a coupon for the family restaurant down the road. Let’s all go.” she suggested trying to lighten up the mood.

“Why with him?”

“Why not, Hinata-kun is new here. He should get to know more people.” 

“No thanks, I’m kinda – “

“It’s decided, we’re all going after school. Meeting at the shoe lockers.” she cut Shouyo off.

“Yachi-san.” Kageyama wanted to protest but Yachi ignored him and walked back to the comforts of her shiny black grand piano.

Kageyama stares down at Shouyo and the latter returned the glare. He didn’t know why he was glared at but he didn’t want to lose to him or his attitude in any way.

When Yachi called Kageyama again, the raven turned away and followed the smaller blonde suit and that’s when Shouyo realised he probably made his classmates wait for him and should go back to class. 

The rest of the day ended in what seemed like forever, counting each and every grueling minute as the clock on the wall ticked by. 

“Hey, Hinata-kun.” Yachi greeted him when he got to his lockers, bet she was waiting to ambush him if he ever thought of fluking them and of course she had Kageyama with her, although he didn’t seem very happy to the thought of Shouyo tagging along. 

The place they went to wasn’t that far from school and there were other students from Nekoma that were also there to hang out and just talking while having a light snack.

“So what made you transfer mid-term, that's pretty rare.” 

“We recently moved so it’s closer.” Hinata replied but never continued and Yachi didn’t pry any further than necessary.

“This is great then, we can show you all the nice places nearby. It’ll be fun!”

“Hey, who’s we? I’m not going.” the raven interrupted

“Don’t be such a spoilsport Kageyama-kun. It’s not like your have anything on anyways.”

“I just wanted to make friends. You’re always like that, that's why you don’t have any other friends apart from Yamaguchi and Tsukishima.” she teased.

“I choose my friends wisely.” Kageyama countered.

“Sure you do.” not wanting to drag it on anymore. “Sorry, Hinata-kun, he’s actually a really nice guy once you’re friends with him. He’s just shy.” she whispered to Shouyo, making sure the raven couldn’t hear her. 

“Both of you seem pretty close.” Shouyo commented and taking a bite of of his burger.

“We’ve been stuck together since middle school.” Kageyama interjected, joining in the conversation.

Shouyo just hummed at the new found information, munching away at his burger. “Are you guys going out together?” he blurted out, with some food still left in his mouth before swallowing.

Both Yachi and Kageyama turned to face him in unison, wide eyed. “M- M -Me and Yachi? No way!” The raven stuttered first. “I would never date her.”

“Yeah, I’d never da- , what do you mean never? ” she demanded

“Yeah, why wouldn’t you? Yachi-san is really pretty.” Shouyo pointed out. 

The blonde blushed at the compliment and sat quietly in her seat, looking down and pulling down at the hem of her skirt, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“Well, I’ve known her for so long I guess, I don’t really feel anything special at this point anyways.” Kageyama bluntly said.

“Yachi-san, don’t mind. I’m sure you’ll find a guy better than this Kageyama here.” 

 

Shouyo’s phone rang and he picked it up, his eyes narrowed and he picked it up. “Hello?”

Natsu on the other line, “Onii-chan, when are you coming home?

“I’m out eating with my friends.”

“Friends? Oni-chan you have FRIENDS?” She basically shouted into the receiver and Shouyo had to pull the phone away from his ears.

The action earned Yachi and Kageyama’s attention and now they were curious on who was shouting on the other side of the line. Shouyo didn’t know how to react to her exaggerated response so he just responded with a simple awkward ‘uhh’ and ‘yeah’

“Um so did you need anything?” he finally asked after his sister had calmed down.

“Oh yeah, could you get Tesla cat food? He’s been complaining the whole time, I think Kuroo-san won’t be home till late today. 

“Yeah sure.”

“Thanks nii-chan! Love you.” she said and hung up without waiting for Shouyo to say his goodbyes. 

With the person on the other line gone, Shouyo placed his phone back into his pocket and 

“Your mum? She sounded really excited.” Yachi commented.

“Nope, my sister. She wants me to buy food for Kuroo-san’s cat.” he confessed.

At the mention of the word cat, Yachi jumped up from her seat staring holes into his eyes. “You have a cat?!” she almost screamed in the restaurant and got a few stares from the other customers and Kageyama had to pull her back down into her seat. 

Her sudden outburst startled Shouyo. “Yeah, it’s Kuroo-san’s cat though.” he replied sheepishly. 

“I should go soon, my sister said the cat is hungry.”

Yachi stared at Shouyo expectantly, when he realised her eyes on him “Uhh, do you wanna come along?”

“Yes!” she replied a little too excitedly.

After they all finished their respective meals, they left the restaurant and made their way to the nearest pet shop in the area. Shouyo was grateful that Kageyama and Yachi tagged along because when they asked him which pet shop they were going to visit, he just stood there dumbfounded. He didn’t think there was going to be that many pet stores in Tokyo. In the end, they brought him to one of the biggest one so he had more options to choose from.

He was scanning his options for what seemed like a while, “Do you even know what to get for your cat?”

“Oh hey, Kageyama.” he didn’t notice Kageyama coming up to him, completely focused on the stack of cat food on the shelf. “Not really, honestly I’ve never bought a cat food before.” 

“What, are you serious? Even though you have a cat?”

“I told you, it’s not my cat.”

“Well you live in the same house as that person, don’t you? That sort of makes it your cat too. This Kuroo-san person is your family right?”

Shouyo was confounded at the use of the word family, Kuroo was not family, they weren’t even related by blood so why would he even be family. He was just a nice guy who decided to take two kids in when they had nowhere to go to. He only has his sister and that useless father where ever he was, or if he’s even alive. But Kuroo-san wasn’t family, that he was sure of.

“Uh, I’m not actually related to him.”

“But he’s taking care of you and cares about you two, doesn’t he?” Kageyama asked as if to confirm his suspicions and Shoyou nodded. “Then, that already makes him family.”

“So, what breed is your cat?”

“Uhh, I don’t know?” 

Kageyama rolled his eyes, “Why did I even bother asking.” 

“Oh but it’s white and really fluffy!” he added, hopefully that little bit of information would help him.”

“Well that could be a lot of things but I guess you could go for this food then.” Kageyama picked out one of the medium sized food packed from the shelf with a picture of a fluffy cat on it and passed it to Shouyo. “Okay, anything else?”

After going through his mental list of what to buy, he went over to the counter and paid for the cat food which Shouyo was in shock after the cashier mentioned the price to him and he spent the rest of the time grumbling, after leaving the store.. 

 

“So Kageyama-kun, I’m guessing you have a cat at home?” the orange boy asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got three of them.”

“Damn that must be hard.” Hinata exclaimed, but also in admiration

“Not really, they’re really calm. Well, most of the time. You don’t have to take them out on walks or anything. Well,, if you need any advice about cats just send me a text. I wouldn’t want a cat dying on me.” Kageyama joked followed by the other retorting back. 

He held out his hands and it took Shoyou a while to understand that the raven was asking for his phone. He fished it out of his pocket and handed it over to Kageyama who in turn tapped his number into the dialer and gave himself a call so he has Shouyo’s number in hand. 

“Got it. Me and Yachi are going this way. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t forget to feed your cat.” Kageyama reminds him.

“Shut up, I won’t”

Both the raven and Yachi bid their farewells to Shouyo and he did the same as they part at the junction not far from the pet shop. They both lived in the same neighborhood as well so they often went home together and she would go to his house to play with his cats. 

It was a nice change in pace from all the fights and violence he was used to, they seemed normal and even if it was just for a few hours, he had let his guard down and he himself did not realise it until the moment in the shop where Kageyama had managed to sneak up on him without him noticing. Maybe if it was with them it would be alright. Just maybe he could be a normal high school kid and he was sure it was Kuroo’s influence that was rubbing off him.

 

\---   
Yakuza HQ 

The sounds of pen scratching against paper and clicks of the keyboard exchanged turns as the man in the room continued his work in his study room. The room was spacious filled with various books stacked on shelves around the room. The room was lit bright enough for him to see the documents in front of him clearly but was also a comfortable yellow hue. The dark wooden floors giving the impression the room was dark. 

Two soft swift knocks came from the door followed by someone entering. The men who were still working didn’t need to look up to know who it was that came in, there was only one person who would even come into the room without him giving the word to, not that he minded. He glanced up towards the pink haired guest who made his way into his study room and came over to his side to check on what he was working on. 

“Another all nighter again?” he finally asked.

“Those bloody Hyougo brothers again messed up one of our warehouses and at this point they’re just fucking with us. They destroyed 50 million yen worth of (drugs). Taichi’s sorting things out with our client.” He said between gritted teeth and pinched the bridge of his nose hoping to release some tension but it didn’t. 

“Issei, I know we just lost a huge asset but you gotta sleep, you’ve been up since yesterday. Plus Taichi is good at his job, give him a little credit.” Takahiro put his hand on his back as reassurance. 

It seemed to have worked because he dropped the pen he was holding and closed his laptop and sunk into his chair, finally realizing how stiff his muscles have been. 

“How’s Tsutomu?”

“His training is going well, though he seems to be giving his new bodyguard a hard time.” 

Matsukawa huffed as if it was a given for Tsutomu to cause problem from other people. He’s a hard person to deal with at first but once you’re used to his selfish request, you’re pretty much good to go.

The air was stagnant and Issei could feel the uneasiness radiating from the other man and he sighed. “What is it? I know you got something to say.” 

“What about Shouyo and Natsu?” He blurted out. 

“What about them?” 

“Are you seriously going to let them loose and playing house with that police officer, of all people. Goddamnit Issei! He’s a walking timebomb, we never know when he’s going to betray us. If he decides to turn on us, we’d be done for.” 

“We’ve got to give him the feeling of freedom and snatch it away just when he thinks he’s free.”

“Issei!” 

He didn’t know why Issei was acting so freely when it came to Shouyo. Even the night they found the two children, he didn’t mind the oyabun taking them in but he never really explained why the sudden interest. He started teaching Shouyo how to defend himself to protect both himself and his sister, though it wasn’t a very pretty method, Shouyo came out a fighter for the yakuza. But no matter how hard he tried to train the boy, he could never take a life and his loyalties never lied with the yakuza. 

He’d make sure the kids were well but Takahiro always thought it was just a spur of the moment kind of thing and never bothered to ask him about it and even when he did, Issei would just brush it off.

“Takahiro, if I can’t control just one boy, how do you expect me to control the syndicate.”

He stood up from his chair and walked out of the study room that led out to a long corridor that was brightly lit. they walked down the hallway into an open area with beautifully decorated dining area, each furniture perfectly arranged and had an interior designer decorated the house with carefully placed decoratives and frames on the wall that had no particular purposes other than for aesthetics. 

The maid bowed their heads as the two men passed by as a sign of respect and waited for the two to pass by before resuming their respective work.

“That reminds me Semi told me to tell you that it’s done.” Takahiro informed.

“Good. That’s one less thing to worry about.”

“Call the others, the Miya’s have to suffer the consequences of messing around in my territory.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its a filler-ish chapter.. ive gotten chapter 5 done i just need to edit it and I PROMISE THERE WILL BE SOME ACTION IN IT! should be up in a few days hopefully since exams are OVERRR


	5. Chapter 5

The man tied to the chair was breathless, he hadn’t seen daylight in almost 2 days after being caught and he doubted he would ever see it again. Deprived of food and water, he couldn’t find it in himself to retaliate much longer. He was bleeding and losing a lot of blood ever since the prince took charge of interrogating him. His throat was dry and sore from all the screaming, his face wet from tears and sweat and blood.

“So you were in it alone?” the prince asked Ukai.

He managed to nod with the remaining strength he had left before completely drifting out of consciousness.

The man grabbed Ukai by the hair and pulled up his head to get a response from him but there was none. 

Not completely satisfied by his session being cut short, he stood up with a sigh but he had manage to drag the necessary information out of the man. 

“Thank you for your cooperation,” he said before grabbing a pistol from the table and shot the man right between his eyes, making sure there was no chance of survival. 

The sound on the gunshot echoed throughout the basement.

 

“Tsutomu-sama, your ride is here.” a voice spoke out from behind him. 

The body lying motionless on the chair in front of him, his clothes was dyed red and torn, blood trickling from his arms, body limp. His own clothes had splashes of blood that belonged to his victim. 

“I’ll be right there.” he wiped the blood off from the dagger he used for the interrogation earlier with a white cloth and threw it on the floor. “Clean the place up.” He ordered the other men who were present in the room and they carried out his orders immediately. 

He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and dialled a number, holding it to his ears. The other line beeped only a few times before the other line picked up. “It’s done. He was working on his own apparently, poor guy, he would’ve still be alive if only he hadn’t gone against us. What an idiot.” 

He walked over to the black BMW waiting for him outside of their basement entrance, outside led to a small driveway enough for a single car to drive in and away from prying eyes. A man in a butler uniform held the car door open for him and he walked in and the door shut behind him. “No, it was revenge for his son you killed 3 years ago. It was no fun torturing him though, he didn’t even resist for me to do anything. Huh, another meeting? Yeah, yeah sure dad whatever.”

He hung up the phone and rested his back against the soft backseat leather of the car and sighed. It was too early in the morning for him to deal with the syndicate. “Do you have my uniform?” he spoke to the driver who passed him his school uniform to change into since his current shirt was bloodstained. Goshiki told the driver to drive and they left the secluded back driveway into another lavish driveway lined with beautiful blooming flowers and revealed the front porch of the house that had two large pillars holding it up.

The architecture of the house was a fusion of both western and Japanese architecture, the morning sun hit the walls of the house making the windows reflect the sun making it shine like diamonds. Truly a fitting residence for the head of the yakuza overseeing most of the Kanto region.

“Kyoutani, could you take the longer route to school, I don’t want people to see me getting ready in the car.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tsutomu unbuttoned his shirt and undershirt to replace it with a cleaner one and a new pair of pants, wiped his hands with wet wipes to remove any of the dried blood that stuck to him and hand sanitizer just to get everything off him. 

Kyoutani dropped Tsutomu a few blocks away from school because he didn’t want to stand out, being dropped off at school. He opened the door and stepped out and was about to close the door then remembered “Oh by the way, you don’t have to pick me up today. I’ve got stuff going on after school.” he closed the door again then opened it back. “Don’t and I mean don’t follow me.” 

“I’m here as your bodyguard, where ever you go, I go.”

Tsutomu groaned in response and slammed the door shut.

***

The silence in the room was broken by the door opening and all head on the table turned to face the boy entering the room, still in his uniform. He paused as soon as he realised the everyone was facing him. 

“You’re late.”

“Sorry got caught up in stuff.” he confessed guiltily and took an empty seat at the table.

“Yeah, on a date weren’t you?” Taichi grinned at the boy. “A little too early to be home then. Did you fuck her out in the sun or something?”  
“Taichi ojisan!” he hissed back.

The accused just raised his hands in defence “What a waste.”

“Anyways, what the big meeting for that everyone's here?”

“The Hyogo syndicate attacked one of our warehouses was attacked two nights ago.” 

“You mean the Miya brothers?” Yahaba reconfirmed and the atmosphere in the room dropped.

“Those goddamn twins never could never stay in their own lane. Matsukawa-san we have to do something about it!” one of the men shouted. 

“Well, come down then Taichi. That’s why we’re all here aren’t we.”

“Considering they attacked under my jurisdiction, I think it’s only fair if I go.” Tachi said, gritting through his teeth, trying not to burst during the meeting but everyone could see how agitated he was by the incident.

“You’re planning to go over to Kyoto?” Semi asked.

“I’m planning to let them pay for what they did! They can’t just come into OUR territory and wreak havoc. The other groups would start thinking they can do it as well. We need to keep them in check.” 

The others nodded their heads in agreement.  
“We’ll send the men out for inspection and to pay their dues. I’m pretty sure a visit would boost their morale. Remind them who they’re working for.” Oikawa commented. 

“And send Taichi-ojisan and his men to Kyoto. I’m pretty sure it’s about time we paid them a visit. Force the twins out of hiding and talk. Give them a punch or two would be nice.” Goshiki added.

Matsukawa sipped a drink from his glass. Seeming to think over the plan and didn’t have anything to say on it, which usually meant he was okay with the plan.

“Goshiki, you’ll go with Taichi. It’ll be good to know who you’re dealing with when you’re head of the clan and bring Shoyo along, this will be interesting.” Matsukawa ordered. 

 

***  
Shouyo walked towards the black SUV that was parked by the road in Roppongi, a man in a suit standing outside the car and when he got closer another person stepped out of the car. He was noticeably taller but looked as young as him. “It’s been a while hasn’t it, Shoyo. I hear you’ve gotten yourself a cool nickname, Tokyo’s Watchdog. Good job.” The way Tsutomu said it sounded very polite but the statement itself was basically mocking the other. 

“And you’re the Prince now.” Shouyo said more of a statement that an actual question.

“Guess we both finally grew out of dad’s wings, haven’t we?” They both got in the car and the driver drove off and not long after they were on the highway and out of the city going towards Kyoto.

Goshiki gave a rundown of what they were up against. The plan was to lure the twins out and generally just to fuck with the Hyogo group, give them enough problems that they wouldn’t have time to make a mess out of their own sect. The ride took hours which gave them plenty of time for Shouyo and Tsutomu to devise a plan. One of the twins was supposed to have an important deal with the mayor of Kyoto in a few days and it would be the perfect time to strike then. 

According to their intel, the two brothers have not been on good terms lately and there has been several scuffles and incident around it, though it wasn’t common knowledge, they’ve always had their way around valuable information. 

Hinata didn’t know he was going to be away for an entire week.

Kuroo was sat on his bed, eyes constantly changing between his watch and the window outside. It was well past 11 at night and Shouyo was still not home yet and he wasn’t picking up his phone either. It wasn’t unusual for Shouyo to come home late but he always made sure he was home before curfew, so when he wasn’t home after 9:30pm, both Kuroo and Kenma got was concerned but was going to give him a lecture when he to back but when it went past 11, their anger was replaced with worry instead.

“Look, maybe he just lost track of time.” Kenma tried reasoning with the raven, who was anxious and slightly annoyed now.

“What, he didn’t notice that its past 11? It’s been more than an hour after curfew. I don’t think so.” 

There were knocks at the door and Natsu peeked in, when Kenma went over to open it. 

“Natsu-chan, what’s up?”

“I- I’m worried about oni-chan too.” She muttered, looking at the two men who were in the room equally as worried.

“Natsu-chan, has he ever done this before.”

“Well - umm.” She pursed her lips and not knowing what to say, she just nodded.

“When does he usually come home?”

“I don’t know, maybe tomorrow? A few days?”

“Do you know where he might’ve gone?”

She shook her head, he never tells her.

“What are you going to do with him?” Natsu asked cautiously. She trusted both Kuroo and Kenma after all the kindness they’ve shown them but what if they’ll have to go back to the lives they were living before. She loved being around them and the thought of being abandoned by them blurred her vision and tears streamed down her cheeks. 

Kuroo wasn’t dumb either, he knew the kids had some sort of situation going on when he took them in and he was certain he had the resolve to figure it out, then but things were as smooth sailing as he thought it would be.

Seeing Natsu cry, he hushed her in a calming voice. “Hey, it’s okay we’ll find him.”

“I- I don’t want to leave, I like being with Kuroo-san and Kenma.” she confessed and the two men looked at each other confused but Kenma was the first to realise what she meant. 

“Hey, look here Natsu-chan, we’re not gonna kick you out!” Kenma said, putting his hand on her shoulder for reassurance. “You’re family, and family stick out for each other, and that includes you and Shouyo now.”

She stayed in their arms for a while tears falling down her cheek, silently crying.

After she calmed down and left their room, it was just the both them in the room again. Kuroo slumped down in his bed letting out a heavy sigh. 

“Hey, you knew something was going on and it wasn’t going to be easy.” Kenma took a seat next to him.

“But I didn’t expect her to react like that.” It was Kenma’s turn to sigh. “Did she just naturally think we were going to abandon her? Just what happened exactly to make her think that?”

The two weren’t idiots, deep down they knew what the reason had something to do with the kids’ past and they both looked at each other and silently agreed that from now on they would do anything in their power to help and protect Natsu and Shoyo.   
__

The Shouyo and Tsutomu boys entered the building and loud music blasting over their heads. The didn’t waste any time and made their way to the VIP lounge. Security was lax and Shouyo wondered if they were in the right place but the increase in security the deeper in they went were a good indication someone important was in.  
As they made their presence known, “Is Matsukawa sending kids as to do his errands now?” said the man sitting in the lounge with two ladies flanking him, a glass of liquor in hand. “What business does the great Matsukawa-sama, have in my place anyways” 

“We want to know who sent the men on the attack in Tokyo the other day.” Tsutomu asked the man straightforward.

“Huh, and you think I’d tell you.” his hands were roaming behind the woman next to him and it disgusted Shouyo. “Escort these kids out.” he told the security.

One of the security by the door came up to them and grabbed Shouyo by the arm, a big mistake. In a swift motion, Shouyo elbowed the men strong enough his grip on him loosen and freed himself and gave the man an uppercut making him stumble backward. 

The whole thing happened in a flash and the men were stunned and Tsutomu whistled in approval with a smirk next to Shouyo, impressed to finally see some action. 

The people in the room all looked over at the sudden brawl but didn’t particularly mind because it was them against two kids and another rough looking blonde companion with two weird lines across his head, who was the only one who they were wary of.

The security that was hit brushed off the blood from his lips. “You little shit.” and charged over at Shoyou. Expecting him to do that, he picked up a glass bottle from the table and swung it full force, aiming for the man’s head and the bottle shattered upon contact and the men fell unconscious. 

Seeing a kid in his 160’s easily taking down a full grown man that was at least 180cm. The other men in the room were finally taking them seriously now. 

Tsutomu whistled in approval “Nice, Hinata-kun. Now let’s tear these people to pieces.” a glint of excitement in his eyes.

A man from behind the two, charged at him, and Tsutomu easily dodged it and sending a punch of his own. It didn’t take long for Shouyo to join in on the fight and not a minute later the whole room was in an all out brawl. Glasses and furnitures were broken and anything that was within hands reach became a weapon. The two lady host had long disappeared into a small corner holding onto each other for dear life. 

Shoyou and Tsutomu were fighting side by side as they’ve had back in their training years, covering each other’s back and at the same time it was every man for himself. Tsutomu’s fighting style was raw and violent, every hit on his opponent was meant to disable them, using whatever he had on him to stab and slice his enemy. 

In between his own fight, Shouyo briefly saw the other pick up an ice pick and lodged it in his enemy chest permanently ending his life, using it as a makeshift dagger. He sliced through his enemies swiftly and mercilessly and Shoyo was glad he wasn’t going against him. 

At the end of the brawl, the only person left that was standing was the boss of the building and that was only because they needed to draw out information from him. 

The man stood in horror at the blood bath and massacre of dead or unconscious bodies littered on the floor. “How the fuck did two kids... We had a whole room full of men! How?”

Tsutomu approached the boss, who was now a sitting duck in the mercy of the prince. 

“Do you feel like talking now?” he rammed the ice pick that was still dripping with the blood of his enemies against the wall, trapping his prey under him.

The man was done for, he completely underestimated the capabilities of his opponents and it wasn’t for the sight of sprayed blood over his face proved the man to be a killer, he would’ve still thought the child was a normal high school kid, 

“It was Atsumu-sama! He’s messing with Tokyo so more people would follow him instead of Osamu-sama. He’s been running around Osaka too to get people to submit to him. I swear! Please spare me!” The man shouted confessing everything he knew.

“Hmm, he’s trying to overthrow his brother to take control of the clan, I see. Thanks for the information. Tell Atsumu-san, my father sends his regards.” If he doesn’t kill you first 

They left the building as if the fight never happened and the people on the dance floor were either too busy or drunk to realise there had been a massacre and continued whatever they were up to.

Goshiki pulled out his phone from his pocket and rang Semi, the other man answered the call within a few rings with a firm “It’s Semi.”

“Hey, Semi. How are things on your end?”

“I was waiting for you to call, we’re good to go.”

Shouyo understood why they were doing this, they could have just sent their footmen or soldiers to do their dirty work but having the three of them personally coming up into enemy territory and making a scene would show that Matsukawa was serious about it and would make a huge difference in response.

He lost count of how many brothels and building they’re gone in and struck a bargain with the past few days. The plan was to halt the economic activities tied to the Hyogo syndicate and rip off their connections. 

**   
Atsumu was sitting on his bed when he received the report the damage that had been done. Freshly out of the shower, his hair was still damp and water was dripping from the ends of his hair onto the towel on his shoulders. “So that’s how they’ve decided to play. Well, we were expecting some resistance from them anyways.” he huffed.

“They’ve left a message, I heard Matsukawa’s son himself wants to greet you tomorrow.” the man continued. 

When he heard this, he paused for a moment before laughing to himself, somehow it was amusing. “Well well, this should be interesting.”

The next morning, the town mayor he was supposed to have a meeting with suddenly cancelled and Atsumu knew that it was due to Kantou getting in his way again, but he wasn’t too upset about it. After all, it was a good day and he’d finally get to meet his old friend’s son in person. 

When Atsumu arrived, his guest were already there waiting, two young boys were sat on at the table and another older man who he assumed was their bodyguard stood behind them. The meeting was held at a traditional Japanese styled restaurant with tatami mats and they had a great view of the well-groomed garden outside. The group owned the restaurant so reserving it for a day was an easy feat.

Atsumu held his arms out for a handshake but when Tsutomu was about to take it when the other flicked a small knife out of his pocket and aimed it at the latter’s neck. His other two companions reacted almost immediately after the attack and intercepted it before it even reached their young master, as if they had waited for it. Tsutomu, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch at the sudden hostility and just raised his hand, signalling both Shouyou and Kyoutani not to act on their own. 

“So I finally get to meet Matsukawa-san’s kid eh? A tad bit young aren’t ya?” 

“Goshiki Tsutomu. Quite an interesting way of greeting you got there. Is that how you people do it in the south?” 

“Hmm, it ain’t Matsukawa Tsutomu?” 

“I took my mother’s last name instead of my dad.” he casually replied.

The two heirs exchanged greetings and had an idle chat before moving on to serious business. 

“So what do you want?” Atsumu asked. 

“I want you to retreat your men from Tokyo.” Tsutomu ordered, his tone completely serious and the other raised his eyebrow, silently giving the younger raven a questioning look. 

“And what do I get out of that.” Atsumu mocked. 

“Your brother’s position.” 

He was silent for a moment before a smile slowly crept onto his face. His elbows leaning on the table and he stared at Tsutomu. “I knew I liked ya since the beginning. Are you proposing an alliance with us to bring my brother down, then.”

“Specifically an alliance with you.”

“And what if I decided to turn on you after I become oyabun?” 

“Well, I’m hoping that your syndicate will crumble from the inside from the power struggle before you even get your throne.” 

Shouyo’s features twitched slightly after hearing the bold statement but kept his thoughts to himself. Atsumu didn’t seem to mind the statement at all. Instead, he has quite impressed by it.  
Tsutomu had won the and so, a secret temporary alliance was formed between the two syndicates.

As per their agreement, Atsumu did pull out his men from Tokyo and strengthened his own area, recruiting more men to his side and gaining their loyalty.

Having completed what they were there to do, they returned to Tokyo after a week of being away. 

Shouyou stood outside the house, not knowing how to explain his disappearance. During his mission, he ignored all of three of their calls, not wanting to get sidetracked or distracted and the missed calls and distressed text messages kept piling after each day. 

Deciding that just standing outside the door wasn’t going to solve his current problem, he pushed the door open and was greeted with the familiar smell of home. He missed it. 

Not announcing his return, hoping anyone home wouldn’t notice, he silently made his way up the stairs when a voice called out to him. “Oni-chan, y-you’re home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Matsukawa basically rules over more than half of the Kantou region which is includes Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma prefecture and has a lot land  
> The Hyougo prefecture is a smaller area but their strength is almost as strong as the larger syndicates.


End file.
